IT’S MY FAULT: Giants coach Tom Coughlin deflected criticism from players and coaches yesterday, particularly concerning some conservative play-calling down the stretch. “I’m responsible for all of the decisions that are made with our football team,” he said.Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

We should have thrown the damn ball.

Kevin Gilbride didn’t phrase it exactly that way, but the Giants offensive coordinator yesterday admitted after looking back at a fateful, and ultimately wasteful, final series against the Chargers he wished he had been more aggressive. He wished he made sure Eli Manning at least attempted another pass down in the shadow of the San Diego goal line rather than go safe, run the ball twice and settle for a field goal.

“There are still other things that you can do,” Gilbride said, “and in retrospect, you wish you had done them.”

By now, the gory details of Chargers 21, Giants 20 — the most crushing loss in the four-game skid that puts the Giants at 5-4 entering their bye weekend — have been dissected in excruciatingly painful fashion by coaches, players and fans alike. When cornerback Terrell Thomas turned a floating Philip Rivers pass downfield into an interception that he weaved in and out for a 33-yard return, the Giants were on the Chargers 4-yard line and, leading 17-14, about to put the game out of reach.

A 3-yard run to the 1-yard line by Brandon Jacobs was nullified by a holding penalty on guard Chris Snee to make it first-and-goal on the 14-yard line. From there everything unraveled.

A go-screen to rookie Hakeem Nicks gained nothing. With the Chargers in a dime defensive package and positioning all of their defensive backs in the end zone, Manning had a run/pass option, read the coverage and twice handed the ball to Jacobs, who gained 5 yards on each rushing attempt before Lawrence Tynes kicked a 22-yard field goal with 2:07 remaining. Not going for the throat proved to be deadly for the Giants when their defense collapsed and Rivers was untouched on an 80-yard drive, hitting Vincent Jackson for the winning touchdown with 21 seconds to go.

Gilbride could have been more forceful and Manning could have been more determined, and both came under fire for failure, which did not sit well with Tom Coughlin. He came out firing after the final practice of the week, falling on the sword and declaring himself to blame.

“Let me start out by saying that I’m responsible for all of the decisions that are made with our football team,” Coughlin said. “The green zone decisions are my responsibility. They are nobody else’s. No one else made a mistake. The quarterback did not make a mistake. The decision was mine.”

Looking back, Gilbride said he should have told Manning to throw the ball even though the San Diego defense was primed for the pass.

“If we had thrown it into the end zone, it would have been a good chance that it would have been a disaster,” Gilbride said. “Now, what you hope, like with the screen pass, you throw something underneath and you make a run in there. We were calling, as we always do, ‘Do this or that based upon the look.’ And then if they give you the look that tells you to run, then you hope that you are going to split it and get it into the end zone.

“But in hindsight you wish — if we hadn’t been as conservative, maybe we would have taken that option away and just say, ‘Let’s try to throw it.’ Now, again, I can’t say, ‘You throw it in the end zone.’ I think if you throw it into the end zone it is probably picked off and brought back the other way. And that wouldn’t have been real smart, either.”

This sure has the look and feel of a team that needs to get away from football and each other for a while. Coughlin gave his team the next four days off; the Giants won’t reconvene until Monday.

“What I would like them to do is to go have three or four days with their families and reflect on our situation,” Coughlin said, “and come back here with a greater purpose and a greater desire to get this righted.”